Tonight will make the first leader's debate. I hope it'll be a riveting piece of drama. Something needs to spice up this awfully dull election.
There are seventy-six rules governing the debates (including that the audience cannot react during the debate and that the leaders will shake hands at the end). I do hope that the rules will provide a framework, rather than a strait-jacket for the debates. Rule 49 could be critical: "The moderator may then open the discussion to free debate between the leaders for up to 4 minutes on merit.".

Once the debate starts, if the rules are broken, what can they do? If one member of the audience reacts, they may get ejected, however, if the audience en masse react, then ....

To be honest, I'm not sure what to expect. It all seems rather American to me, it seems like it'll be stage managed to within an inch of its life.

I am hoping for something akin to "Leaders' Question Time" instead of Presidential 'Debate', unfortunately neither can come close to the 'West Wing' debates!